History of La Maison Hospitaliere

La Maison Hospitalière was founded in 1879 by Madame Coralie Correjolles, along with a Mrs. Ernestine Bouny and Mrs. Stephen Chalaron. These women organized “La Société Hospitalière des Dames Louisianaises,” which provided food and medicine to the needy of New Orleans, especially to the elderly women who lost their husbands during the Civil War and were destitute and living in squalor.
 
 By 1893, the Société was able to purchase their first building, located at 822 Barracks Street. The Société added a floor to the pre-existing one-story building dating back to the 1830s. Some time after 1919 they also added a gallery to the façade and arched door openings, which still exist today.
 
 Over 20 women lived in the home at first, and a Ms. Berthe Forcelle recalls in a memoir written in the 1930s that Mrs. Bouny and her servant Celestin would make tarts and pâtes feuillettes (puff pastries) and sell them throughout the French Quarter as a way to raise money for the Maison Hospitalière. As another form of raising money, Ms. Forcelle also mentions that “Miss Correjolles and Mrs. Bouny, with the aid of all the prominent ladies of the Carré, gave once a year, some form of entertainment; of which the most popular were fancy dances and tombola’s, given at the French Opera House […] The proceeds of these performances were always beyond expectations, for everybody was interested in that most worthy cause.”[1]


[1] Berthe Forcelle, “La Maison Hospitalière,” typed by A.W. Phillips, ca.1930. State Library of Louisiana (www.state.lib.la.us)

Rear of Maison Hopitalière’s main building, 822 Barracks St., seen from the courtyard ca. 1900. (Illustrated Sunday paper of The Times-Picayune)

Over time the Société purchased over 13 buildings including neighboring buildings on Barracks and Dauphine Streets, and evolved into a skilled nursing facility with over 100 residents, both men and women. For 113 years La Maison Hospitalière provided full-service care in the French Quarter, until Hurricane Katrina dispersed both residents and staff across the county. La Maison Hospitalière was closed in November of 2006, and the site today is now being renovated as a condominium complex known as Maison du Parc.

822 Barracks Street in 1919, before the Société added a gallery and arched doorway. (The Times-Picayune)

Sources:
 Greater New Orleans Foundation, “Maison Hospitalière” https://www.gnof.org/program/maison-hospitaliere/
Greg LaRose, “$20 Million project turning Civil War widows home into high-end housing,” The Times-Picayune. November 3rd, 2015. http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2015/11/20_million_french_quarter_deve.html
Lillian Fortier Zeringer, Accent on Dedication: The Story of La Maison Hospitalière. (Société des Dames Hospitalières: 1985).